Another day, another Star Wars rumour. This time, reports are floating around that Pixar, those awesome folk behind some of the best films of the past decade-and-a-half, are working on a Star Wars. Not Episode VII, presumably, but something entirely separate. Count me intrigued and, well fanboyishly optimistic.

Rob Bricken of io9, however, recognizes that it might be more of a leap-of-faith than a full blown rumour. “Anyone who remembers that Disney owns Star Wars, Disney owns Pixar, and Pixar makes good movies, could probably put all the facts together and come out with the same hypothesis,” he said. “So let’s all pretend it is true, and maybe we’ll force Disney to conform reality to our wishes.”

Adam Whitehead shares his own concerns about Disney’s intentions with the Star Wars Expanded Universe that currently exists in the Star Wars books, videogames, and comic books. “Something that irritates in all of this, “No-one cares about the Star Wars games, books and comics!” stuff is how BS it is,” Whitehead said on Twitter. “The Star Wars Expanded Universe-set materials have made about $6 billion. That’s more than the theatrical gross of the 6 movies. And about a third of the combined films theatrical gross+home video/DVD/Blu-Ray sales. Still very significant.” Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy has sold nearly 20 million copies by itself, which is more than George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (which is up to five books now), which illuminates just how important the EU is to a lot of fans. However, I wonder, how many of those 20 million were sold to the children and young adults that will become obsessed with the Pixar film and fill their parents’ ears for all the associated merchandise?

Star Wars: Episode VII rumours are like crack for the SFF community. We know they’re no good for us, we know they’ll whisper lies and false promises in our ear, but, dammit, it’s just so hard to say no. This latest round of rumours, reported on by The Hollywood Reporter, is chockfull of casting news, including: Smaug, Sherlock and Kahn himself, Benedict Cumberbatch; Chiwetel Ejiofor of 12 Years a Slave fame; and Breaking Bad star Jesse Plemons.

More on those rumours:

Never has a project attracted so much ink about meetings, but such is the passionate interest in Star Wars. Last fall, every few weeks there was a breathless reveal of a meeting, with names such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael B. Jordan, Jack O’Connell, Alex Pettyfer, Saoirse Ronan and Sullivan Stapleton coming up. And those are only the names that leaked out.

With all the actors being tossed around — including a report this week that Breaking Bad’s Jesse Plemons was meeting with director J.J. Abrams about a role — Heat Vision thought it was time to check in on Star Wars in general.

Sources confirm Plemons is on the list to chat with Abrams for Episode VII (and possibly the entire trilogy), with a meeting set to take place this week. But he is only one of a long string of actors on Abrams’ meeting list.

Additionally, there is also a rumour that “Abrams and Lucasfilm are now searching for a 20-something female actress who is either of mixed race or black. The rumor is that Obi-Wan Kenobi had a daughter or granddaughter.”

Oscar-winning writer Michael Arndt left the project in the fall of 2013, and The Hollywood Reporter says, “According to multiple insiders, the reason for the parting of ways was not due to a timeframe issue, as has been reported, but rather due to a difference of opinion of which characters to emphasize.”

Reportedly, Arndt’s script involved the children of the Luke, Leia, and Han (whether these characters were based on the existing children from the EU was unclear). “Abrams, however, wanted Episode VII to focus on the classic trio of characters,” says Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter. “So audiences could have one more chance to enjoy them before a fitting send-off. The new characters, the offspring, will now be in supporting roles, according to these sources, and take center stage in Episode VIII and IX. Some characters have disappeared from the Arndt script and new ones are being added.”

Because, you know, it’s not like there’s precedent that each of the trilogies would feature a new generation of Skywalkers or anything…

Via Entertainment Weekly, George Lucas has confirmed that Star Wars: Episode VII will be released to theatres on December 18th, 2015. EW reports:

Lucasfilm has announced the new date for the debut of the next Star Wars trilogy, and despite some script rewriting that is currently underway, the movie will not be pushed to later in 2016.

Fans can expect to revisit the galaxy far, far away on Dec. 18, 2015.

Also interesting to note is the recent change in the primary writers for the scrip. Replacing Michael Arndt, best known for his work on Little Miss Sunshine (which is a hilarious thought, given the quirky nature and humour of that film) are J.J. Abrams, director of the film, and Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of The Empire Strikes Back (the best of the trilogy), Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark—that’s certainly a resume that Star Wars fans can be excited about. Entertainment Weekly says that this, “development [is] clearly not an ideal one, and it triggered questions about whether the story would be ready in time.” This 2015 release date ensures that the production will be given the necessary time it needs to be polished to the high level (*cough cough*) that Star Wars fans expect (though, perhaps, are not always used to receiving).

Pre-production for the film is already underway, with shooting scheduled to being in Spring 2014.

I didn’t come to writing through literature and creative writing courses. I was a singer and then a lawyer before I turned to writing. I had an instinctive sense of what was satisfying, (and really writing is about telling a story you’d like to read), but actually analyzing how you make something engaging and emotionally satisfying is a long process, and you never stop learning. This little essay on myth represents where I am in the journey of learning and refining upon which I’ve embarked.

So how did this musing about myth and to some degree fairy tales all start? It was because of a movie script and a video game.

I’ve been writing a movie for Universal Pictures based on the Wild Card books that I co-edit with George R.R. Martin, and there’s a father/son situation in the script. My protagonist was a man trying to live up to the legend of a deceased father and this shows up on about page three of the script. The world is filled with images and comments about this father. Ultimately my hero discovers his father’s not dead, and then I had to figure out how Frank was going to react emotionally. What would he actually do? Read More »